Exploring The Beautiful Blue Flag Beaches Of Portugal

World's Best Beaches?

With more than 100 miles of coastline, Portugal’s Algarve coast offers every kind of beach you can imagine. Whether you are a family in the market for a fun holiday at the sea… a retiree looking for peace and quiet… a beachcomber, a sunbather, a surfer… this region’s got a beach with your name on it.

Portugal is the fifth most decorated country in Europe for officially recognized Blue Flag beaches. This award is given annually to beaches and resorts that meet the criteria set out by the European Foundation for Environmental Education to do with environmental management, safety, amenities, and water quality. You can be sure when you see the Blue Flag flying that you are on a beach officially recognized for its cleanliness and safety. Last year, 89 of Algarve’s beaches were awarded Blue Flag status, including:

Best Beach Views

Image Source: flickr/Rojs Rozentals

The 20-mile stretch of sand in the area known as Albufeira alone includes 25 Blue Flag beaches. Try Praia da Falésia and Praia da Marinha east of Carvoeiro, near Armação de Pêra. Both boast iconic Algarve views of crumbling cliffs, hidden coves, and rock arches reaching out into the sea. Access is via steep steps… or you can enjoy the views from a cliff-top walk. Just don’t go too near the edge.

Best Beach Sunset

flickr/Tiago J. G. Fernandes

Several beaches can be explored via wooden walkways that have been constructed to protect the local wildlife and also to allow ease of access. The wide boardwalk at Galé is a great spot for watching the sunset.

Most Disabled-Friendly Beaches

Disabled-friendly beaches in the Algarve are designated and publicized as “Accessible Beaches.” Not only do they provide ramps, footpaths, and walkways directly to the sand, but they also meet set criteria for restaurant table, bar, and counter heights. Accessible Beaches have first-aid posts and disabled toilets and should be equipped with wheelchairs, walking aids, and other equipment capable of being used in the sea as well as on the beach.

Most beach parking areas in the Algarve are disabled-friendly, but not all have good access to the beach. Praia de São Rafael near Albufeira, with good boardwalks and paved slopes leading from the parking lot to the sand, is an exception.

Best Beach Walk

Image Source: iStock/serbek

For a nice long walk on the beach head to Armação de Pêra and park at the Fishermen’s Beach end of the town. From here you can walk for miles from the quaint and delightful Nossa Senhora da Rocha church at one end at low tide, along the wide Praia Grande beach, all the way to Albufeira, with the beaches of Salgados and Galé in between.

Best Hidden Beach

Image Source: iStock/pkazmierczak

For a real hidden beach experience head to Albandeira, near Benagil. This is a small cove, quiet and undiscovered, delightfully free of any tourist trappings.

Best Family Beaches

Image Source: iStock/Nisangha

Families are spoiled for choice. Praia da Rocha is busy, bustling, and touristy but deserves mention for its wide-open sandy beach, perfect for young children and their buckets and spades.

Meia Praia towards Lagos is another good spot for families with children.

Both of these beaches have plenty of restaurants and cafés with toilets and good facilities for families. In summer you’ll hear the call of “bolinhas,” as cheery sellers pass by offering bolas de Berlim for sale. These warm, custard-filled donuts are a traditional Portuguese treat.

Best Surfing Beaches

Image Source: flickr/ Tiago J. G. Fernandes

The Algarve has both south- and west-facing coastlines, meaning it is perfectly positioned to pick up Atlantic swells from almost any direction.

Lagos and Sagres are known for their surf schools, and pretty and unspoiled Zavial to the west of Luz is a top surf spot. It’s worth a visit even if you’re not a surfer. You can watch the experts on their boards, walk the beach to collect polished stones, and stop for an ice cream.

Most Traditional Beaches

Image Source: flickr/muffinn

For a traditional coastal village experience, head to Burgau on the west side of Luz, with its winding streets, cafés, and windswept beach, or Ferragudo, with its cobblestoned streets and Old World church.

Kathleen Peddicord

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Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

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